Police ID gunman in west Houston shooting spree as military vet

The Conoco gas station at Wycliffe and Memorial Drive is closed Monday after a man went on a shooting rampage Sunday, May 29, 2016.

The Conoco gas station at Wycliffe and Memorial Drive is closed Monday after a man went on a shooting rampage Sunday, May 29, 2016.

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The Conoco gas station at Wycliffe and Memorial Drive is closed Monday after a man went on a shooting rampage Sunday, May 29, 2016.

The Conoco gas station at Wycliffe and Memorial Drive is closed Monday after a man went on a shooting rampage Sunday, May 29, 2016.

Police ID gunman in west Houston shooting spree as military vet

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Paris Nichols saw the bare-chested man with a crew cut stride calmly up to his wife Sunday morning as she chatted with a longtime customer at their family-owned car wash off Memorial Drive. He reached around her, shooting Eugene Linscomb in the head while the 56-year-old sat in his Mercedes.

"That man's the devil," the gunman declared.

Felicia Nichols sank to the ground, reciting the Lord's Prayer.

"Y'all calm down. I'm not going to kill y'all, y'all are Christians," Paris Nichols said, recalling the words of the shooter, who was identified Monday by a Houston Police Department source as 25-year-old Dionisio Garza III from San Bernardino County, California.

Garza was a sergeant who received several awards for his service in Afghanistan, according to a military discharge record found at the scene. He harbored anti-government sentiments, the HPD source said.

Railing against homosexuals, Jews, and Walmart, Garza then walked back toward his car to grab an AR-15 assault rifle, yelling that the world was coming to an end. Nichols, 42, who has owned Memorial Hand Car Wash for the past 13 years, seized the opportunity to escape. Grabbing his wife's hand, they sprinted across the street to a Chase Bank and jumped a residential wall.

Police say the gunman began shooting indiscriminately for nearly an hour, instilling terror in this cozy middle-class neighborhood where churchgoers were just returning home and joggers were out on their morning run. The scene turned chaotic and confusing almost immediately, with initial reports indicating two gunmen might be on the loose, while neighbors tried to protect themselves.

Three bystanders, two men and a woman, were wounded, as were two Harris County Precinct 5 constable's deputies. Another armed man, initially thought to be the second shooter, also was injured. Garza successfully fired five bullets at a police helicopter circling the scene. Part of a Conoco gas station burst into flames, likely the result of a stray bullet hitting a gas pump. A SWAT officer finally ended the ordeal, killing the gunman at 11:10 a.m.

On Monday, police declined to release more details about the attack or suspect, citing the ongoing investigation. The Harris County medical examiner's office is expected to officially identify the shooter Tuesday. Garza's relatives could not be reached for comment.

A TV station reported finding Garza's military bag at the scene with several documents, including his birth certificate, as well as ammunition that police detonated Sunday. Police didn't recover the backpack until Monday. "This was the most terrifying event I have ever encountered in my life," said Deputy Constable Danny Luna, who pulled up to the scene near 13210 Memorial Drive shortly after Houston police to assist.

The first officer had responded to reports of an active shooting and was immediately shot at, police said. A photo later released by the Houston Police Department shows his SUV's windshield and hood riddled with 21 bullet holes. He quickly called for backup and a SWAT team.

By the time Luna arrived, dispatchers asked him to block off Brittmoore Rood near Memorial Drive. Hearing dozens of gunshots, he grabbed his rifle, crouching behind his constable vehicle.

"We were taking bullets," he said.

He'd intentionally rolled down both his driver and front passenger windows so he could aim at the shooter, who was less than half a mile away, if he had the chance.

"I thought if I could get a good shot at the suspect, I would be able to shoot through the window," he said.

At some point, Luna moved. For mere seconds, he was visible through the open window.

"I heard a gunshot, it sounded so close," he said. "I heard another thump, boom. That was the bullet. It hit me right in the chest."

Luna fell to the ground, yelling at his partner.

"I didn't know if I was going to make it or not," said the 43-year-old father of two.

He checked his bullet-proof vest. The bullet had flown through the vest's first plate. Miraculously, it had lodged in the second.

"I'm pretty shaken up, realizing that one more inch and that bullet would have hit me," he said.Luna returned to the standoff, moving with his partner and three other officers behind a Houston police car for shelter.

Another deputy constable, Jaime Ayala, was also shot in the thumb after the gunman shot at his car and the bullet tore through the vehicle. He said dozens of 911 calls and an array of varying information coming over police channels made it difficult to know what was going on.

"We were hearing multiple calibers of rounds," Ayala said. "There were reports of multiple shooters, and we had no idea, just too many calls coming in all at once."

Down the street on Wycliffe Drive, Prudence Allwein was gardening outside when she heard several loud booms. She ran to her husband in the backyard and after a few confusing seconds trying to discern the sound's origins —could it be? Here? —they hurdled upstairs to wake their two teenage daughters.

"I said, 'Get down, there's a shooter somewhere on our street,'" said Allwein, a 44-year-old photographer. "We were hysterical. We moved the kids back behind the fire place. They were crying."

So powerful was the shooter's artillery that a bullet shattered the back window of her daughter's car, parked in the driveway, though they were about half a mile down the street from the gunman.Allwein's neighbor, a chiropractor and retired U.S. Navy commander, grabbed his gun. Brian Cesak, 55, said he could see the shooter standing at the corner of Memorial Drive and recognized the sound of a powerful assault rifle firing "well over a 100 shots."

"I was going to stop him if he came down the street," he said.

Crouching behind houses and shrubs, he ran up to cars coming down the street and shouted at them to turn back.

Ken Gibbs was going to the gym when he saw Cesak.

"There's a guy down there shooting with a high-powered rifle," Cesak yelled.Gibbs, a 60-year-old oil and gas businessman, helped his neighbor alert oncoming cars.

"We didn't want anybody to go down there, they'd be like sitting ducks," he said. "We were like a human road block pissing off a hundred cars."

Eventually, a stillness descended. Police officers began walking down the street. Residents slowly uncurled from their fear.

By Monday, they flocked to the car wash, where many have known both the Nichols and the owner of the neighboring tire center for years. They placed bouquets of roses and sunflowers and a balloon decorated with the American flag near the spot where Linscomb died. They hugged the couple, who recounted their horror over and over.

Linscomb's family could not be reached for comment. But Paris Nichols said he had been a regular for years and was "more than a customer, almost like a friend."

Staff writers James Pinkerton and Cindy George contributed to this report.